I Worked In A Factory

Yeah, I did.

It was a small place that made springs of all shapes and sizes. At one point they offered to take me on as an apprentice - after a few years I would have been a toolmaker and earning more money than I have ever earned in my life. But I said no - I was going to write books in those days...

I learned many things from working there. I learned about fighting against President Marcos in the Philippines from Ruben. He used to ride around on a motorbike with a friend on the back shooting at soldiers. He also taught me how to break into cars. He had to leave the Philippines in the end - it was too dangerous for him to stay.

I learned that gambling is a bad idea. I learned that reading the Sun every day actually changes you into a see you next Tuesday.

I also began to appreciate machines. Machines sound great. They get into a rhythm and just keep going and going...subtle changes in the sounds from time to time. If you have a room full of machines they each have their own rhythm and tend to go in and out of phase. I used to fall asleep as I worked on a fairly regular basis. A few times I fell asleep to be woken by the sounds of a machine grinding and clunking itself to a halt. Then I would get yelled at "All you have to do is fu*k*n* sit there you daft muppet - just feed that wire in there ok?" Once I woke up because I had drilled through my thumbnail and into my thumb. Ouch. My love of extreme coffee dates from this period in my life - had to stay awake somehow.

But what I'm trying to say is I fell in love with machines...and their music.

Will Montgomery is also in love with machine music. His latest can be heard here.